For God and Gold

by Julian Stafford Corbett

'We will not change our credo
For Pope, nor book, nor bell;
And if the devil come himself,
We'll hound him back to hell.'

By this time it was dark night, and we gladly took to our oars again, rowing hard under the shore, that we might not be seen of the watch-house. So we continued till we recovered the point of the harbour, and there we lay to again, to wait for the first gray of dawn, when our captain purposed to deliver his assault.

It was still full two hours to wait, and I could see how anxious Frank was as to how his men would get through them. For if it had been hard to keep them from their talk before, it was doubly so now, when no one might speak above his breath. Wearily an hour dragged away, and the men were growing more and more uneasy, shifting about and whispering a great deal as they watched nervously for the first glimmer in the east.

'Would God it were day!' whispered Frank to me. 'How shall we ever pass another hour of this? The poor lads' courage is oozing out at their finger-ends with all this lingering.'

'See, see!' said I; for even as he spoke a faint gray streak appeared on the horizon. 'There it is at last!'

'Never a bit, lad,' answered Frank; 'it is only the moon rising. Still, it shall serve for dawn to-day. No one has seen the sand-glass but I.'

There was a merry twinkle in his eye as he passed the word. 'Dawn, dawn,' he said, in low tones. 'Out oars, lads; yarely now, and still as mice, and God help our service.'

How pleasant was the dull rattle of oars after our painful silence as we rowed round the point! All was gloom as we bore towards the town, save for a few lights that twinkled here and there, and one that moved slowly across the bay. As we came abreast of this we could see in the growing moonlight that it was on board of a ship of some sixty tons, which had just arrived. Her crew seemed soon to catch sight of us and to take alarm at our numbers; for we saw them cast off their gondola, which shot away immediately hard for the shore, like the ghost of some evil monster.

'Not so fast, not so fast, my gallants!' cried Frank. 'Be not at such pains on our behalf. Come, my lads, we must save them this trouble, and carry the news ourselves. Now, smite for all that is in you!'

The pinnace leaped under their sturdy strokes, and we headed to cut off the gliding shadow from the shore. It was a sharp struggle, for the Dons rowed well and their boat was light. Still, our sinews soon told. Seeing they were beaten, they stopped irresolute, and then, with some blaspheming cry, made over to the opposite side of the bay.